Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-05858

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what volumes of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco were sold in Scotland, which together generate the tobacco duty incomes set out in the GERS report, in each of the last five years.

Information on the volumes of cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco sold in Scotland is not collected by the Scottish Government, and is not used in estimating tobacco duty in Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland (GERS), which uses data on household expenditure on tobacco to apportion a share of UK wide revenue from tobacco duty to Scotland.

A review of sales estimates, which includes estimates of the volume of cigarettes sold in Scotland from 2008 to 2013, was published in November 2015 by NHS Health Scotland and is available at the link below:

http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/26537-Validity%20and%20reliability%20of%20cigarette%20sales%20data.pdf

Question reference: S5O-00554

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Glasgow Colleges’ Regional Board and the City of Glasgow College regarding their relationship with each other.

Question reference: S5F-00706

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2016

To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the proposal by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government that holders of public office should swear an oath to uphold "British values".

Question reference: S5O-00434

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Glasgow City Council regarding the hostel for homeless men, the Bellgrove Hotel.

Question reference: S5F-00569

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2016

To ask the First Minister, in light of comments by the Secretary of State for Scotland, what commitments the Scottish Government has received from the UK Government regarding the devolution of further powers.

Question reference: S5T-00189

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to research carried out by Heriot-Watt University regarding ways to reduce income and other inequalities.

Question reference: S5O-00149

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 September 2016

To ask Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the feasibility of a universal basic income.

Tackling poverty and inequality is a top priority for this Government, and we give serious consideration to all ideas that could help us to do so. The Universal Basic Income is an interesting concept and we will certainly pay attention to research being carried out and the different models of UBI being piloted in other countries. We also recognise that there would be significant challenges with piloting a Universal Basic Income in the devolved context, whilst we do not have full control of tax and social security.

Question reference: S5O-00090

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 June 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the industrial action at ScotRail.

RMT industrial action commenced on Tuesday 21 June 2016, the first of seven planned strikes involving ScotRail conductors over the extension of Driver Controlled Operation when new electric trains are introduced on the Edinburgh – Glasgow route.

Safety is paramount and, as such, the Scottish Government's priority will always be to ensure the safety and efficient running of our railways. I have chaired five meetings of the government's Resilience Committee on this issue and have a further such meeting tomorrow.

Following further strikes on Thursday 23 June, Saturday 25 June and Sunday 26 June the remaining dates are Sundays 3, 10 and 17 July with additional action short of strike action on a number of dates through June and July.

ScotRail’s plans have been successful in easing the impact of the industrial action with around 70% of services operating, and this is anticipated to increase on future strike days.

A multi-agency response team has and will continue to operate on each of the strike dates when all modes of transport have continued to perform well. It monitors the situation throughout the day to help ensure the public has the latest information and agencies are equipped to respond to any major incidents, aiming to help to mitigate the impact on planned major events in July.

Question reference: S4O-05704

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to strengthening community councils.

Question reference: S4O-05666

Asked by: John Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 March 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that its policy on children's attainment takes account of the impact of poverty.